Orchard Books
Orchard Books is a children's imprint founded in 1986 under Grolier; since 2000 the UK list belongs to Hachette Children's Group and the US list to Scholastic.
- Editions tracked
- 104
- First editions
- 71
- Books
- 99
- Years
- 1987 to 2016
Orchard Books is a publisher active from 1987. We track 104 editions it published between 1987 and 2016, 71 of them first editions across 99 books. Each book lists its first edition and the points that identify it.
About Orchard Books
Orchard Books is a children's publishing name founded in 1986 by the Grolier group; since 2000 it has been two separate imprints, Orchard Books in the UK (part of Hachette UK) and Orchard Books in the US (part of Scholastic).
In Britain, Orchard launched in 1986 with nine titles as the trade publishing arm of the Watts Group, part of Grolier. Its first publisher, Judith Elliott, came from Heinemann, where she had published The Jolly Postman, and ran the list for six years, building up illustrators such as Jane Ray and James Mayhew; Ray's The Story of Creation won a Smarties award in 1992. By 1996 the list had passed 300 hardbacks and 200 paperbacks. In the US the editor Richard Jackson joined Orchard in 1986 and ran his own imprint there, Richard Jackson Books, until 1996.
The French group Hachette bought Grolier in 1988 and sold it to Scholastic in 2000. Scholastic took the American Orchard list, while Hachette kept the British company. The UK Orchard list publishes the Rainbow Magic and Beast Quest series (Beast Quest from 2007) and authors including Lauren Child, Giles Andreae, Cressida Cowell and Anthony Horowitz.
We have not yet written the guide to Orchard Books's first-edition conventions. Until we do, check each book's own page: we list its points where we know them. Know how Orchard Books marked its firsts? Tell us.
Authors
Published by Orchard Books
Frequently asked questions
How many Orchard Books books does MyVolumes track?
We track 104 editions published by Orchard Books, 71 of them first editions, across 99 books.
Where these facts come from
- Orchard Books, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
- A Blooming Good Read: Ten Years of Orchard Books, Books for Keeps, 1996 (booksforkeeps.co.uk)
- Obituary: Richard Jackson, Publishers Weekly, 2019 (publishersweekly.com)
Every fact on this page was checked against the sources listed. Checked 3 November 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.